Zombie power: The undead engines that outlived their parent companies

It takes a lot of resources to develop and produce an internal combustion engine for automobile use. It needs to be tough, reliable, and able to operate under a wide range of environmental conditions and states of maintenance. No wonder, then, that not every carmaker in automotive history has actually developed its own engine – perhaps the vast majority of carmakers that have existed have in fact licensed engines from outside suppliers – or that a number of companies have employed engines from dead carmakers to avoid the expense of developing their own engines. So let’s get a jump on the zombie holiday season and run down a few of those undead engines.

We’ll start with the above engine, Pierce-Arrow’s V-12. Developed under Pierce engineer Karl Wise, the 80-degree flathead V-12 debuted in November 1931 for the 1932 model year and initially came in two different versions: 398 cubic inches, developing 140 horsepower; and 429 cubic inches, developing 150 horsepower. A year later, Pierce introduced a 462-cu.in. version good for 175 horsepower (later beefed to 185 horsepower), and the V-12s gave the struggling automaker a shot in the arm, but that boost only lasted so long, and in 1938 Pierce-Arrow discontinued automobile production.

According to the Pierce-Arrow Society, however, Pierce had already been selling its straight-eights and V-12s to Columbus, Ohio-based fire engine manufacturer Seagrave (since 1935, according to some sources), and sometime after automobile production ended in Buffalo, Seagrave bought the tooling for the V-12 to continue building the engine. Seagrave revised the engine a number of times over the following years and kept it in production at least through 1962 and as late as 1970, according to the Pierce-Arrow Society. Total undead time: 24 to 32 years.

Where the Pierce-Arrow V-12 had just two lives, the Crosley four-cylinder engine had a cat-like seven or eight lives, depending on whether Crosley’s two iterations are counted as one. Crosley, in fact, didn’t originally develop the overhead-camshaft 44-cu.in. four-cylinder; rather, it was Lloyd Taylor, a California-based independent engineer who designed the engine in 1942 for military use, according to Jim Bollman’s history of the Crosley engine on the Crosley Automobile Club’s website. Powel Crosley, who also manufactured war materiel during World War II, bought the rights to the engine toward the end of the war and used the tin-block CoBra to power his postwar cars, changing the design to use a cast-iron block in 1949.

Following the end of Crosley automobile production in 1952, the rights to the engine changed hands a number of times. Aerojet-General Tire, Fageol, Crofton, Homelite, and Fisher Pierce all owned the rights to the engine at one point or another and produced their own versions of it for a variety of uses – as both inboard and outboard boat engines, as refrigerator unit power sources, and even to power the Jeep-like Crofton Bug. Fisher Pierce, which marketed the engine as the Bearcat 55, discontinued it in 1972. Total undead time: 20 years.

Finally, though it only ever powered one brand of vehicle, Jeep’s 4.0-liter overhead-valve seven-main-bearing straight-six indeed outlasted its parent company. Developed as the 232 and released late in the 1964 model year to power the Rambler Classic Typhoon, it quickly proliferated under the hood of just about every vehicle American Motors offered after that in a few different sizes: 199, 232, and 258. About as soon as AMC bought Jeep, the straight-six engines began to power them as well, and International-Harvester even bought the engines from AMC for a little while. Looking to keep it fresh as it entered its third decade of production, AMC engineers refined the carbureted 258 into the fuel-injected 4.0-liter for the 1987 model year – just in time for Chrysler’s purchase of AMC.

Chrysler’s engineers – many of them AMC engineers who Chrysler hired on to continue their work (some sources claim that Chrysler’s 4.7-liter V-8 was originally designed by AMC engineers and developed for production after 1987) – then left the essential design of the 4.0-liter untouched over the next several years, refining it as necessary every few years to meet emission and noise, vibration, harshness standards. It powered Jeep’s Comanche until 1992, Cherokee until 2001, Grand Cherokee until 2004, and the Wrangler until 2006, when Chrysler finally eliminated it after 42 years in production. Total undead time: 19 years.

By no means are these three the only undead engines in the annals of automotive history. Some could argue that the AMC 360 (used in Jeeps through 1991), the Pontiac 151 (reportedly still available for dirt-track racers), and the Kaiser V-8 (developed for the company, but never used, only to eventually become AMC’s first-generation V-8) all qualify as well. Can you think of others?

Brendan T. Burkesays:

October 10, 2013 5:23 pm

Fred Shaffersays:

October 10, 2013 10:15 pm

I read in a car magazine (Car & Driver?) sometime in the last couple of years that the Rolls-Royce / Bentley 6.8 litre V8, which of course is still being used in the big Bentley, was based on the 1955-56 Packard V8. That would make a certain amount of sense, as RR needed such an engine by then, this was a good one and the design would have been available. Anyone know if there’s any truth to this?

Art Hamricksays:

November 4, 2013 11:59 am

David B. Keithsays:

December 26, 2013 1:20 pm

It appears that this article as well as the comments are centered around American cars. If so, just disregard the following:

Ettore Bugatti’s monster Type 41 Royale had a total production of only seven cars, originally intended to be sold to European (and perhaps Middle Eastern) royalty. Other well-heeled buyers stepped in, so that never happened. Several extra engines were built in anticipation of further orders, and because of their huge size and power, were eventually installed in European rail cars. Some were successfully converted to operate as diesels because, unlike the GM V-8 disaster, they were built stoutly enough to withstand the stresses of much higher compression and torque. One was being tested and streaked through a railroad station so fast that the concussion blew out all of the (station) windows! Does anyone know whether one of these unique railcars has been preserved?

Jack Dalesays:

December 26, 2013 8:50 pm

I hope the Cal Spider Forming buck is sold for the asking price & beyond, but I would not buy it, because I would want to make my own out of cardboard & epoxy, which could either serve as a buck or stand as the framing for an aluminum body–the parts for which, are very expensive. I don’t know about the Bugatti-straight-8, but there are a few 3-D replicators, using titanium-aluminum substrates, that could copy the Ferrari 212 6 DOHC inline head,(as long as it was never sold…as a Ferrari head), or some of the 60s Maseratti 6 inline DOHC heads could be moded to fit your Jeep AMC 6, or other inliners. It always seems to me, that the flat-head 6s had SO much underhood room–it just seems like a crime to not take-up that average foot in under-hood height, to up-grade the inliners of the 30s-60s to DOHC power & status, and FUN.

October 24, 2014 2:40 pm

Dr. Dunghorsesays:

December 15, 2015 5:26 am

I have a 1998 Jeep Cherokee in the garage right now purchased in July of 98 at Lou’s Jeep Eagle, Geneva Illinois (no longer there) it has 412,564 problem free miles on her. I’m not an engine buff but that’s gotta be some kinda record for an American car.